May 4, 1536: C U @ the Piazza

1536: Francesco Lapi, a Florentine merchant, uses the @ symbol while penning a letter. It’s the first recorded use of the “at” sign outside a monastery.

Ubiquitous in today’s internet culture, the “at” sign most likely owes its origin to a monk with writer’s cramp. Before Gutenberg showed up with his printing press, forever changing human communication, the Holy Scriptures were considered among the few written works worth copying for wider distribution.

The texts were transcribed by hand, a laborious process that encouraged typographical shorthand.

The most plausible theory is that the “at” sign evolved from the grave-accented “a” (à, which is also “at” in Italian). The compressed symbol allowed the transcriber to complete the letter in a single stroke. This is just one of a handful of theories, mind.

Another is that @ evolved directly from the English word “at” as a way of allowing the transcribing monk to use one stroke instead of three. That seems less likely.

Still another theory posits that the symbol was used as an abbreviation for amphora, a unit of measure corresponding to the amount of liquid contained in a vessel of the same name.

Wherever it came from, Signore Lapi glommed onto it. Although Gutenberg’s press had existed for nearly a century, it was not yet in widespread use, and Lapi probably came across the symbol while reading a transcription. He used it in dating his letter, then once again in the text.

Today, of course, @ is all over the place. It has logical uses, as in e-mail addresses, and asinine ones, usually where there’s marketing involved.

Among the English-literate, incidentally, “at” remains the preferred spelling of “at.” And th@’s th@!